The disclosed invention relates generally to weapon alerting and cueing systems, and more particularly to a weapon alerting and cueing system for remotely alerting and cueing, in a simultaneous manner, multiple man-operated weapons to multiple radar detected aircraft.
Handheld or so-called "manpad" weapon systems have been developed to substantially improve the air defense capabilities of surface-based military units. An example of such manpad weapons systems is the Stinger missile, which is a heat seeking manpad launched guided missile. A weapon alerting and cueing system for a manpad weapon system such as the Stinger missile is commonly comprised of a portable weapon computer terminal and a gunner unit. The weapon computer terminal is configured to receive radar track reports from a remote radar sensor system and to receive weapon pointing information from the gunner unit. Pursuant to the radar track reports and the weapon pointing information, the portable weapon computer terminal provides cueing information to the gunner unit which controls a cueing sight that visually guides a weapon operator to cue the weapon launcher to a selected radar detected aircraft. Typically, the portable weapon computer terminal is operated by one operator while the weapon launcher unit is operated by another operator, and the portable weapon computer terminal and the weapon launcher are interconnected by a cable.
Considerations with known weapon alerting and cueing systems include the need for two persons to operate each manpad weapon, the cable interconnection between the portable computer terminal and the weapon launcher, and the lack of coordination of the operation of a plurality of manpad weapons located at a single weapon site.